


How the Rise of Skywalker Should Have Ended

by carlyduck



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Rey Kenobi, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:40:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24282238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carlyduck/pseuds/carlyduck
Summary: Rey is a Kenobi. Ben is a Skywalker. Rey wants to avenge her family. Ben wants to save Rey. But what is the will of the Force?
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	How the Rise of Skywalker Should Have Ended

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! This is my first ever fic! I wrote it for my brother after our latest rewatch of Rise of Skywalker. We decided we needed to change the ending. Hope you like it!

First:  
Rey is a Kenobi. She arrives on Exegol to lead the Resistance there, but also to confront Palpatine as the last of the Jedi. She feels the darkness. It is anger, for mostly the same reasons. Her parents were killed by Palpatine, and she, as the child of the greatest Jedi, was to be taken to the Emperor. Now she comes of her own volition to destroy him.  


She descends into the cavern full of statues and lit by lightning. She feels the evil of the planet all around her. Through the darkness she sees a deeper dark - the throne of the Sith. Breath caught in her throat, she faces it.  


A terrible laugh echoes through the chamber. There he is - the Lord of the Sith. Palpatine. The Emperor. She holds on tightly to Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber. He is so incredibly ugly.  


“At last,” he says. “The last of the Jedi, come to join the Dark Side.”  


“No,” she replies. “Come to end the Dark Side.” Another sinister laugh. Rey’s body grows cold. His power, even muted, is terrible. “Your reign over the galaxy is over. I come to end you and bring balance to the Force! I come to avenge my parents!” She bares her teeth in anger.  


The Emperor laughs again. “Good, good,” he says. “Use your anger. Strike me down. The grandchild of Kenobi, turned to the Dark Side of the Force! Your power will be UNSTOPPABLE!” If he could have, the Emperor would have spat.  


Rey is suddenly aware of the chanting all around her. Sith of all shapes and sizes, shrouded in darkness, are chanting. The lightning grows fiercer now. Her grip tightens on his lightsaber.  


“No,” she pants. “I am a Jedi, like my grandfather before me.”  


Palpatine laughs, his whole dead body shaking. “No. I can feel your anger. Your loathing. You will strike me down in your hatred and become my successor!” Rey’s face falls in dismay. He is right. She wants to take her revenge, make him pay for the death of her parents, make him pay for the life he left her to lead. She begins to shake.  


“I am a Jedi,” she repeats. “I am a Jedi.” Rey lets the words rattle around in her head. She is a Jedi, a guardian of peace and the safety of the galaxy. She is not a Sith. She is the heir to the Jedi. But the pulse of hatred bubbles inside her.  


“Hate me,” the Emperor continues, “go on. Feel the malice burning inside you! Look at your friends!” The sky opens up, or so it seems. Rey staggers backwards. The ceiling above creaks open to reveal the explosions in the atmosphere. She gasps.  


It is the Resistance. She led them into a trap. The thousands of Star Destroyers are annihilating them. Everything they have worked for, these many years, destroyed in one short moment. Rey feels nothing but anger. Anger at this man, who killed her parents. He killed so many people, and now he is taking away the hope of the galaxy once again.  


She growls and whirls back to him. “You see, the fleet will never win,” Palpatine says, his voice falsely innocent. “Unless you, Rey Kenobi, strike me down! You have the power, the Dark Power, to save them! Strike me down! Take your place as the Empress of the Sith!”  


His dead body is wheeled closer to her. Rey holds her lightsaber between them. She will kill him. She will make him pay!

Second:  
Ben Solo lands on Exegol for the second time. This time he is free. He is unrestrained, free to do whatever he wants. Right now, what he wants is to help Rey. Show her that he listened, that he is Ben once more.  


He looks around once, then sprints wildly to the chasm. In a moment of Han-Solo-impulsiveness, Ben launches himself into the abyss. He smashes into one of the towering chains.  


“Ow,” he groans. But his focus is not on the pain. It is on Rey. She is down there, facing Palpatine alone. He must get down there. He climbs, and he climbs, and he climbs. When his feet hit the ground, he is running again, faster than he has ever run.  


The chanting echoes all around him. Ben shoots a guard before him, and one behind.

Third:  
“The ritual begins!” Rey remembers the chanting figures lining the chamber. Goosebumps erupt on her arms. “She will strike me down and pledge herself as a Sith! She will draw her weapon.” Rey’s lightsaber grows closer to his chest. “She will take her revenge, and with a stroke of her saber,”  


Rey begins to see red. “the Sith are reborn!” The Emperor’s voice rises in triumph. “THE JEDI ARE DEAD!” She screams violently. The point of her lightsaber hits his body. Palpatine laughs again, just once, so quietly. He knows how deeply she hates him.  


“Do it.” His voice is impossible to disobey. “Make the sacrifice.”  


She draws back the saber with a cry. Palpatine will die. 

Fourth:  
Ben is surrounded. The men he’d led hatefully crowd in on him, their weapons sharp and murderous. He has no blaster now, no weapon. They begin to surge. But Ben has no fear. Ben has only resolve.  


The first Knight flies backwards with the Force. Knives and bludgeons and scythes fly around him, but Ben dodges easily. Blows rain down, and Ben realizes how stupid this was. He was here, doomed to die, on a Sith planet, about to be murdered. A smash to his shoulder takes him aback, then to his stomach, then his cheek. Ben falls to his knees.  


Another hit to his face. Ben gasps. 

Fifth:  
Rey feels that blow. Her eyes lock on Ben’s. Help me, she tries to say. She lifts the lightsaber higher, high enough to be hidden behind her head. 

Sixth:  
Ben stands dramatically, his eyes never leaving Rey’s. This is why he is here. He is here to help her right now, to help her defeat the pull of the Dark as he had. He nods. 

Seventh:  
Rey smiles just a little bit. A warm hand closes over hers. And the lightsaber is no longer in her hand. But Palpatine, his dead eyes closed, is still waiting for the blow. Rey smiles a little more.

Eighth:  
Ben unveils his grandfather’s lightsaber from behind his head, a cocky grin on his face. The Knights stare at him from behind their helmets, He gives a little bow. Then the lightsaber flies.

Ninth:  
Rey ignites the other lightsaber, the one of her master. The Emperor opens his eyes and gasps in dismay and hatred. The Emperor’s guards, all in red, surge towards her.

Tenth:  
Ben twirls his lightsaber expertly. The Knights surge towards him again, but stumble back with severed heads and smoldering arms. His blade meets theirs with clashes and clangs. They have never fought him like this before. He is no longer Kylo Ren. He is Ben Solo, heir to the Skywalkers. And he fights like that.  


In a moment of bravado, Ben ducks to his knees. His lightsaber is on his back. A Knight’s blow glances off. The Knight blinks and staggers. Ben stabs him through the heart with ease. He gives in to the Force and flies.  


Another Knight falls with a hole through his heart. Another tumbles down a crevice. Ben turns to the direction of the chanting. Rey.

Eleventh:  
Rey twirls her own lightsaber. The guard’s red blasts soar back to them, sending them spiraling away in pain and death. She catches a blast in the air and sends it away. She slices, she deflects, she shoves guards away. Something inside her clicks.  


She looks up. Ben is there, a guard falling before him with a hole in his chest. Rey finds herself smiling. Their eyes meet once again, and soon Ben is by her side. In one synchronised motion, the lightsabers of the Skywalkers rise. Palpatine just laughs.  


His evil chuckle rumbles over the two. “Skywalker and Kenobi, standing together once again.” Ben and Rey tighten their stance and their resolve. “Stand together... die together!” He cries. Rey’s bold runs cold with hate. Ben wills himself to be calm for her sake.  


Then Palpatine’s ruined hands shoot out. They slam down onto their knees, lightsabers falling away. The Emperor gasps and examines his hands. The greying skin begins to regenerate.  


“The life force of your bond,” his terrible voice begins, “a dyad in the Force. A power with life itself.” Rey begins to writhe beside Ben. He struggles to turn to her. “Unseen for generations.”  


Palpatine turns from his hands to the two. His face splits into a terrifying smile. “And now, the power of two restores the one true Emperor!” It is terrible. Rey’s life force is being sucked away. Ben’s energy and resolve are failing. Bits and pieces of them, their power, are drained away. The beautiful thing between them begins to fade. Rey fights against him, against Palpatine, against the sweet release of the darkness.  


Then they fall. Rey’s world is only darkness. Ben’s is a flickering danger. Palpatine rises to his feet, adorned in a new robe. He turns his glowing eyes on their prone bodies.  
In this world, Ben does not struggle to his feet. He is not launched down a pit. Instead, he struggles to join hands with Rey, to try to feel her and bring her back. Palpatine laughs again. It is no longer a weak laugh, but a loud scathing laugh of triumph.  


“Yes. Try to save her, but you will fail.” Ben turns his gaze to the Emperor. “Your power is no match for the power of the Sith!” Ben’s whole world becomes white. Lightning crackles in his bones. The chanting grows around them, but Ben cannot hear it. His grip on Rey’s hand fades. Then it subsides. Ben aches for a full breath.  


“Do not fear their feeble attack, my faithful,” Palpatine croons. The Sith people begin to surge from their places. The chanting grows and grows. “NOTHING WILL STOP THE RETURN OF THE SITH!”  


Rey lies on her back, Ben’s feeble hand around hers. Palpatine’s cry ends, and the sky shines with his lightning. The Resistance, high above, are dying. She can feel them extinguished by the Dark Side. In this moment of terror, all Rey does is focus. She squeezes Ben’s hand.  


“Be with me,” she says. Rey closes her eyes. “Be with me. Be with me.” The darkness behind her eyes turns into stars. There is nothing but her and the Force.  
“These are your final steps, Rey,” a voice says. “Rise, and take them.”  


“Rey.”  


“Rey.”  


“Rey.”  


“Ben,” says a man. His voice seems much like Ben’s. “Bring back the balance, as I did.”  


“In the night, find the light, Rey,” a woman adds.  


“You are not alone, Rey.”  


“Alone, never have you been, Ben Solo.” Ben stirs beside her. Rey senses him in the Force with her.  


“Every Jedi who ever lived, lives in you now.”  


“The Force surrounds you both,” the man says.  


“Let it guide you-”  


“As it guided us.”  


“Feel the Force flowing through you, Rey.”  


“Let it lift you, Ben. Rise.”  


“Rise, Rey.”  


“We stand with you, Rey.”  


“Rey,” the first man says. Rey’s eyes open. He stands over her and looks at her with warm eyes. Around him are many people surrounded by blue auras like his. His strength in the Force rejuvenates her.  


“Rise in the Force, Ben,” the man says. Ben looks weakly to him. It is a man with a scar through one eye and a familiar set to his face.  


“In the heart of the Jedi, lies their strength,” one of the figures says.  


“Rise,” the man with Rey says. It is echoed by a man with long hair behind him.  


Then Luke Skywalker appears. He smiles down at the two of them. “The Force will be with you. Always.” Rey struggles to her feet, Ben by her side. In an instant, their lightsabers are in their hands.  


Palpatine stares at them. It is not just the two last Jedi, but the greatest Jedi to ever exist. Thousands of generations of Jedi stare at him. The Emperor has the audacity to chuckle.  


“You have fought like a Jedi. And now you will die like them! Your deaths are the final word in the story of the rebellion!” Lightning arcs through the air. Rey and Ben’s lightsabers meet it. Every ounce of power in their bodies focuses.  


“YOU ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO THE EMPEROR! I AM ALL THE SITH!” The two find themselves touching shoulders. Rey and Ben meet eyes once again. The bearded man puts his hand on Rey. The scarred man does the same to Ben.  


“And we,” the scarred man begins.  


“Are all the Jedi!” Ben and Rey speak in unison. Their lightsabers lock. The lightning rockets back to the Emperor. His hood shoots off. With an agonizing scream, he begins to fade away. The Dark Side falls from the chamber. The Emperor is dead.  


Then Rey collapses. Ben feels her wilt. The ghosts wilt with her, all disappearing but the scarred man. He drops down next to her and looks into her dying eyes. He closes his own and reaches into the Force. Just as she had healed him, he heals her.  


It takes a terrifyingly long time. Rey’s chest does not rise and fall. Ben’s own breathing grows slow and rhythmic. He begs Rey to rise and come back to him. Ben begins to give up, his powers giving out and falling away. It takes all of him to give Rey a burst of life.  


Her breathing begins. In perfect sync with his. Their souls, reunited for a moment, sing. She blinks once. The edges of her mouth twitch into a smile. Suddenly, the two embrace. Ben and Rey leave no space for the Force.  


Rey can’t believe it. He brought her back. There is nothing more to fear. It is just her and Ben, now, no Emperor or Sith or First Order. They kiss. As the author has no experience with this, just imagine that it is the kiss to end all kisses, at least for Rey and Ben.  


Ben smiles. He really, really, smiles. Every bit of Rey is warm and fuzzy. Just like that, she is cold. Ben grows slack in her arms. He begins to fall. The bit of Ben’s life inside her had been too much taken from him. She lets him rest on the stones below, tears filling her eyes. They are a dyad. Does that mean nothing?  


“Rey.” She suddenly remembers the ghost. He comes and somehow kneels beside her and Ben. “My name is Anakin Skywalker.” One of his blue, transparent hands rests on her shoulder, the other on Ben’s head.  


“Why are you still here?” Rey says, her voice embarrassingly wet.  


“I am Ben’s grandfather. You might know me better as Darth Vader.” Rey recoils.  


“Darth Vader?” Anakin smiles sadly.  


“Yes. I made some very poor choices to save Ben’s grandmother, my wife Padme.” Rey looks at the ghost. She can see where Ben’s conflict comes from. “But I was not able to save her.” Rey’s face falls.  


“Ben gave himself for you, Rey. He did for you what I could not do for Padme.” Something stirs in the Force. Rey turns her gaze back to Ben. Anakin’s eyes are closed now.  


“Ben accomplished what I could not. He deserves to keep going and enjoy his life with you.” Anakin looks directly at Rey. “Tell him his grandfather is proud of him.”  


A gentle burst of life flows from Anakin’s hands into Ben’s body. There was one spasm. Then another. Then Ben’s breathing begins again. Rey’s soul is no longer empty. It is full. It is teeming with love and life and joy. Rey pulls Ben into her arms. He is real. He has come back to her.  


Anakin Skywalker fades back into the Force just after Rey mouths “Thank you.” 

Twelfth:  
When their X-wing lands on Ajan Kloss, the Resistance is already celebrating. It’s not a party, more a mass of sweaty and exhausted people relieved to have survived the day. Rey and Ben, squished inside the tiny cockpit, smile at each other.  


“I won’t let them kill you,” Rey says. Ben smiles uncomfortably.  


“I think they’ll try anyway.” Rey scowls at him and opens the cockpit. “Stay in here until I’ve found Poe and Finn.” Resistance fighters are already at the base of her ship, ready to welcome her. She slides down.  


People in orange and yellow surround her, cheering violently. Rey manages to smile and nod, but her focus is on two people. They turn around and meet her eyes. She smiles. The three meet in one tight hug.  


“We did it,” Poe exclaims quietly. “We really did it.”  


“I know,” Rey replies. The three remain attached for a moment, drinking in the relief and success they’d never imagined would come.  


“I need you to promise me, when you see him, that you won’t kill him," Rey ventures. She pulls back from the hug and takes a step towards her ship. “He saved my life. Do not kill him.” Poe nods, but Finn furrows his eyebrows in confusion.  


“What do you mean, Rey?” She waves to the ship. With a grunt, Ben struggles out from the cockpit. The cheering stops. All eyes are on Ben. She’s sure many don’t know who he is, but strangers in all black are not always a good sign. Rey jogs over to the ship. Ben thuds down beside her with a grimace. Both of them are beaten and exhausted.  


“Everyone, this is Ben.” Ben stiffens and smiles tightly. “He saved my life and helped me kill the Emperor.” Finn casts a savage glare to Ben. Rey coughs as a reminder - back off. “You may know him as Kylo Ren.”  


An uproar. Ben looks at Rey with consternation. She shrugs and smiles. Ben rolls his eyes and lets her position herself in front of him.  


“I’ll say it again - he saved me,” Rey says. “He saved the Resistance.” A murmur creeps through the crowd. A loud growling noise echoes over them. Rey looks all around her. Then there is a roar. Rey steps away just in time to see Chewbacca smash into Ben.  


They are hugging. More of a squishing and squeezing on Chewie’s part, and wheezing on Ben’s part. Finn and Poe look at each other and consult through a glance.  
“If Chewie likes him, he has to be fine.”  


Finn sighs angrily. “Fine.”  


Chewie makes some Chewie noises. “Yes,” Ben replies. “No. I died.” Mrwagh. “Yeah. But then, my grandfather showed up.” An angry garr. “I’m fine now.” A sad rawrr. “I know about Mom. Yeah, I’m sorry bud.” Chewie hugs Ben again. There’s a happy mrwagh now.  


Chewie now turns to Rey, Ben still in his arms. He lets out a thankful noise. Rey smiles. “No problem, Chewie.” 

Thirteenth:  
They are not going to remain on Tatooine for very long. This is just a little stop-over, time for the two of them to rest after the stress of saving the galaxy. It is covered in sand, and Rey does not like that. Neither does Ben. It gets in his boots.  


The sun beats down on Rey as she slides down the sandy dune. The eerie abandonment of the farm complex reminds her too much of her life on Jakku. She stands up. Ben comes down behind her. His shadow eclipses hers in the light of the twin suns.  


“This is where Luke Skywalker grew up,” she says, breaking the eerie silence. She creeps into one of the doorways. A light flickers on, exposing a grimy room that had once been white. There are ancient droids, half-finished mechanical things, and even little spaceship toys. The place is sad. Rey cannot describe it any other way. Ben picks up the toy and gives it an experimental whoosh through the air. He pockets it.  


“We have to do what we came here for,” Rey reminds him.  


“I’m keeping the ship, though.”  


“Alright, five-year-old.” Rey winds her way through the dusty hallways and corridors where someone had once lived. There is a burst of light, and she is up the stairs and out in the sand again. She looks back at the little domed house. From her satchel she pulls a wooden box. She sinks to her knees beside the doorway. The box opens for one last look. Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber lies beside Leia’s. There is no need for these anymore.  


Ben appears by her side. A silent promise passes between them. They begin to push away sand and dirt to make a hole. The box goes down into the hole. Then it is covered, as if it was never there. But Rey makes sure it is. A stick with a piece of Leia’s burial shroud is stuck into the sand and shored up. So they can always find it.  


The two meet eyes. Ben takes her hand and pulls her to her feet. She stares back at the stick for a moment, then pulls her own lightsaber from her belt. With a tiny shove, the golden blade ignites. Soon, Ben’s white lightsaber joins hers. They are not true Jedi, but they are what must lead it into the future.  


The gold and the white are striking against the blue sky and orange-tinted sand in the growing sunset. As if guided by an unseen hand, Rey gravitates towards the mound of sand ahead. She walks a bit onto the rise and stares. Ben’s tap on her shoulder does not go unnoticed. She turns.  


There, silhouetted in blue against the fading horizon, are ghosts. Luke. Leia. Anakin. Obi-Wan. Staring peacefully at them. Rey cannot help but get the sense that they are pleased.  
Ben and Rey meet eyes and turn together to the binary sunset.


End file.
